Keeper closure



United States Patent Henry Knox Bryson P.0. Box 6624, St. Petersburg Beach, Florida 33736;

Milford A. Juten, 4008 61st St.,

Washington, District of Columbia 20016 Appl. No. 845,812

Filed July 29, 1969 Patented Nov. 24, 1970 inventors KEEPER CLOSURE 6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

11.8. CI 292/341.l4 Int. Cl E05b 15/02 Field of Search 292/340,

341.14, 34l.l5,341.17, 34l.l8,341.l9

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 327,887 10/1885 Lucas 292/34l.14 587,131 7/1897 Markert 292/34l.14X 3,458,227 7/1969 Bryson 292/341.14

Primary Examiner-Marvin A. Champion Assistant Examiner- Edward J. McCarthy Attorney -Milford A. Juten ABSTRACT: To prevent the small heels ofladies shoes being caught in the openings in a strike or keeper in a threshold ofa door frame, which keepers cooperate with lock bolts in a door, a closure is provided to make the bolt-receiving opening in the keeper substantially closed and flush with the threshold and the present invention provides an automatic latching structure to retain a closure member so that its outer surface is substantially flush with a threshold and a small heel of a ladys shoe cannot enter the bolt-receiving opening in the keeper.

Patented Nov. 24, 1970 FIG. 5

FIG. 3

INVENTORS HENRY K/VOX BRYSON M/LFORD A JUTEN BY a. 36

KEEPER CLOSURE The present invention relates to a further development of the invention disclosed in-U.S. Pat. No. 3,458,227 and pro vides for maintaining a smooth surface in a door frame, particularly in a threshold to prevent the insertion of foreign objects into the lock bolt-receiving opening of a keeper or strike.

Heretofore, various attempts have been made to maintain a substantially flush surface in door frame, and particularly in the threshold, and some prior art devices provide for closures to maintain a substantially flush relation'of a closure slidable in a tubular member, but such prior art devices required an additional operation such as using a screw driver to turn the closure device to a locking position.

An object of the present invention'is to provide a closure structure for a keeper which permits the insertion of a locking bolt while preventing insertion of foreign objects into the boltreceiving opening of the keeper.

Another object is to provide the keepers for circular or rectangular shaped bolts and to provide closures for the boltreceiving opening in the keeper which are automatically pushed to inoperative position by the usual operation of locking a door with the bolt.

Other and further objects will be apparent upon reference to the drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective showing made according to the present invention bolt and a key-operated bolt;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section of a keeper for cooperation with a cylindrical shaped flush bolt with the keeper in its nonboltreceiving position and showing in dotted lines a bolt received therein;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the invention according to FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a vertical section of a keeper according to the present invention having a square bolt-receiving opening; and

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the closure for the bolt-receiving opening of FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A pair of doors and 11 are pivotally mounted in a door frame 12 including a threshold 13 with the door 10 having a flush bolt 14 operated by the usual lever 15 to project the bolt 14 into a keeper 16 shown of cylindrical or tubular form.

A tubular support 17 having a threshold 13 by means of a nut 14 and slidably mounted therein is a slide 19 which has a flange 20 for engagement with an annular abutment 21 to limit the upward movement of the slide 19 by the projecting spring 22. A generally trapezoidal shaped slot 23 receives an angular shaped latch which is pivotally mounted in pivot 24 so that the upper arm 25 is substantially flush or slightly below the outer surface of the slide 19 and the other arm 26 extends downwardly and radially so that the end thereof is received within an annular groove 27 while a spring 28 urges the angular member 25, 26 so that the extremity of arm 26 is received in the groove 27 thereby latching the closureslide 19 against downward movement. The bolt 14 is provided with a projection 15 which is received in a chamfered enlargement 29 formed centrally of the slot 23 so that the projection 15 can be guided into operative contact with the arm 25.

It will be noted that the arm 26 has its extremity slightly spaced from the shoulder formed by groove 27 by the projecting spring 22 and the spring 28 is a relatively weak spring so that when the projection 15 engages the arm 25, the spring 28 is compressed first, thereby moving the arm 26 out of the annular groove 27 without having any resistance thereto and further projection of the bolt 14 into the tubular support 17 results in compression of the spring 22 a sufficient distance so that the bolt 14 has its projecting portion effectively received in the keeper 16 to its normal locking position. The chamfer 29 provides for effectively guiding the projection 15 in the event that the exact alinement is not had at the time of the beginning of projection of the bolt 14 by its operating handle double doors with keepers for receiving a flush flange 18 is secured to the 15, thereby assuring that the locking bolt 14 will be received in such a way as to release the latch 25, 26 and further movement of the bolt moves the slide out of closure position to the dotted line position.

Referring more particularly to FIGS. 4 and 5, a U-shaped frame 30, 31 and 32'is secured to the threshold by screws 33 and the bight portion 31 of the support has studs 34, 35 fixed thereto and extending upwardly. A closure slide 36 is provided with alined openings so that the slide 36 will be accurately guided in rectilinear movement from a position in which the slide 36 closes the bolt-receivinggopening 37 in the threshold 13. A slot S is provided in the upper portion of the slide 36 to receive angular latch elements 37, 38 and 39, 40 which are pivotally mounted on pivots 41 and 42, respectively. Communicating with the slot 5 and running in the same horizontal direction is a circular bore 43 which receives a latch projecting spring 44 which urges the latches 37, 38 and 39, 40 to the position shown in FIG. 4 where the extremities of arms 38 and 40 are provided with notches which receive the adjacent shoulder or end of thestuds 34 and 35 so as to prevent downward movement of the slide 36 from the position shown in FIG. 4.

The key operated lock bolt 43A is provided with projections 44 and 45 which are adapted respectively to engage arms 37 and 39 of the angular latch elements 37, 38 and 39, 40 respectively, to cause the latch members to move to nonlatching position so that the extremities of the arms 38 and 40 are free of the studs 34 and 35. It will be noted that the free ends of arms 38 and 40 are provided with notches for receiving the adjacent ends of studs 34 and 35 to prevent the angular members from excessive motion due to spring 44'.

To limit the outward movement of slide 36,21 sleeve 46 having a counterbore therethrough is threadedly adjustable in a threaded opening 47 while a bolt member 43 has its head in the large part of the counterbore of threaded sleeve 46 and slidably extends through the sleeve 46 and the position of the bolt 48 is controlled by the thread engaging the threaded opening 49 through the element 31 and is held in adjusted position by a lock nut shown. Another lock nut 50 is threaded on the outer surface of sleeve 46 to prevent the change of adjustment by the usual locking action.

The bolt 48 and the threaded sleeve 46 provide for the correct upper limit of motion ofthe slide 36 by the spring 51 so as to leave a slight clearance between the horizontal surfaces of the extremities of arms 38 and 40 so that when the bolt 43A is projected downwardly the projections 44 and 45 engage arms 37 and 39 respectively, and compress the spring 44 a sufficient amount so that the free extremities of the arms 38 and 40 are clear of vertical projection of studs 34 and 35, thereby permitting the slide 36 to slide downwardly to bolt-receiving position shown in dotted lines.

From the above description it will be apparent that applicants have provided a closure for the bolt-receiving openings of keepers to prevent the unintentional insertion of foreign objects, and particularly to prevent the small ladies heels from being caught in the keepers. Since the closure slides ofthe present invention are held in keeper closing position, this danger of injury or damage is prevented, and there is no possibility of the person locking or unlocking the door, forgetting to perform an additional function to prevent the closures from beingdepressed. The expression threshold" is used to indicate a door frame member such as a jamb as well as a threshold, or the floor serving as a threshold since the keepers are adapted for use in the door jambs or in the lintel and are not limited to the location in the threshold.

It will be apparent that rectangular closure 36 may be mounted in a rectangular tube similar to that of FIG. 2 with a single latch detent, if desired.

We claim:

1. A keeper for cooperation with a locking bolt comprising a support for attachment to a door frame member such as a threshold having a bolt-receiving opening therein, means to secure the support to the threshold, a slide mounted for movement inwardly and outwardly in said support for closing said opening in substantially flush relation to the threshold, means to urge the slide to its closure position, shoulder means on the support, a latch member mounted on said slide, said latch member engaging said shoulder when the slide is in said closure position, yieldable means to urge the latch member to latching position, said latch member including a portion adjacent the outer surface of the slide member for causing movement of the latch member from its shoulder whereby the bolt on a door may be received within the support when the boltis projected from the door mounted in the door frame.

2. The invention according to claim 1 in which the keeper is mounted in a threshold in alinement with a locking bolt on a door and the threshold and the door are operatively connected to a door frame.

3. The invention according to claim 1 in which the support is a tubular element-fixed to the threshold and the slide closure is a cylindrical member and the latch is an angular member pivoted at its vertex with the one arm substantially flush with the outer surface of the closure and the other arm is in engagement with an annular groove formed on the inner periphery of the tubular element.

4. The invention according to claim 3 in which the surface of the closure member is provided with a chamfered counterbore for receiving a projection on the bolt.

5. The invention according to claim 1 in which the slide is of rectilinear section slidably supported on a pair of rods and the shoulder means is the end of the rod and the latch means includes a pair of angular elements with one arm substantially flush with the outer surface of the closure and the other arm is provided with a notch at its extremity for engagement with the rods.

6. The invention according to claim 5 in which the angular elements lie in substantially the same plane and have a spring operating between them to urge the latch elements to latching position and a cooperating lock bolt is provided with projections for engagement with the arms of the angular members adjacent the surface of the closure member in closure position. 

